Beer: Ratings & Reviews

Sampling right now on 8/16/14. Comes in a 500ml (16.09 ounce) bottle with a cool label that costs about $5.00. Bottle chilled down to 36 degrees F in my beer cooler and poured into a handled glass stein.

Pours a hazy golden in color with a very thin white head. Some light spotty lacing is seen that settles back down the sides of the glass when sipped. The aroma is nothing really special actually just of some musty herbal grains. The taste is pretty close to the aroma with lots of malts up from followed by a slight bitter hoppy dry crisp finish. Medium bodied and medium carbonation. Overall, it was just OK and a once try brew for me. Not a big fan of the 'Pale Ale' types as they are all over the board with MOST in the very average range, like this one.

Bottle marked 3 DEL 15:02 at 45 degrees into imperial pint glassAroma initially of skunk, replaced by odor of maltHead small (2 cm), off white, frothy, rapidly diminishing to 2 mm ring with center islandLacing average – small to medium irregular islands of small bubblesBody golden, chill haze which disappears as the ale warmsFlavor begins bitter with malty overtones; no alcohol, no diacetyl. The bitterness could be from the hops, but can’t be sure. Ends with bitterness with a long hang time.Palate light to medium, watery, lively carbonation.

Meets criteria for Brit pale ale. I prefer Yorkshire dark ales. I have noticed some skunkiness in other Wychwood light ales on draft in the UK.

Scarecrow is a lusterless golden colour with a fall foliage kind of tone. Although perfectly transparent it lacks that truly sunny disposition of a summer quencher and looks better suited to autumn temperatures. Its head is certainly no bale of hay but does leave behind straws of lacing.

You'd expect a brand marketed on the basis of being organic to smell cleaner and more wholesome than this; an aroma of stale corn kernels doesn't conjure pristine images of golden grain fields the way that scents of lightly sweet and soft, fresh-baked bread can. The total lack of hoppiness also robs the bouquet the possibility of any kind of 'green' qualities either.

When attempting to brew a clean, approachable pale ale the answer is not to tone down the flavour - it's to up the quality of the ingredients. This is the mistake so many producers make. People like the softly sweet, subtly biscuity flavours of barley malt - what they don't enjoy is a bitter and bloating form of mineral water. What's the point of drinking that?

Scarecrow, unfortunately, has more of the latter than the former. There's very little malt flavour except for the most raw, rudimentary taste of cereal grain. Hops are entirely absent though a light but crude bitterness concludes each sip. And the hard water minerals make the ale feel especially dense but don't add any redeeming flavour qualities.

Like a real-life scarecrow, this may take the shape and appearance of a beer but it's all hollow inside. If the people at Wychwood had a brain they'd ditch this offering and put their reasonably talented brewer to better use - then again this is the same company that brought us Ginger Beard and Forest Fruits so I wouldn't bank on it.